WWE News: More details on the return of the XFL

What’s the story?

Recently, there's been some big news about Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and the rumored return of the XFL, we have an update about filed trademarks and why it might be coming back.

In case you didn’t know…

The XFL ran for one season in 2001 as a professional football league, made to rival the NFL. It was a joint venture between WWE (as WWF) and NBC. It was run as a football league with fewer rules and encouraged players to be rougher.

Although it was seen as unsuccessful at the time, an ESPN 30 for 30 brought it back into the public eye, and a return was teased at the end of the show.

The heart of the matter

Recently, a WWE spokesman dismissed that the XFL would be returning, after Brad Shephard broke the news, stating Vince McMahon has created Alpha Entertainment, and was touting his idea to potential investors in sports, entertainment and American football.

However, the spokesperson added that "Mr. McMahon has nothing further to announce at this time."

Despite this statement, Shephard stated that an announcement about the XFL could be made on January 25, 2018 - three days after the 25th Anniversary of Raw.

FOX Sports noted that, because the news was broken by a political source, the league could be linked to Donald Trump, who has been extremely critical of the NFL during his presidency.

Trump owned the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985, but the organization folded with Trump being blamed for pushing a move to a fall schedule against the NFL, causing it to lose lucrative offers of spring TV coverage.

The report also states that McMahon recently filed for trademarks, including "URFL", "United Football League", "UFL", and "For the love of football."

What’s next?

Well, possibly the most surprising news here is the potential involvement of Donald Trump. While the XFL was seen mostly as a failure, it would be hard to bet against anything that may have the financial backing of Vince McMahon and Donald Trump.

We have a prospective date now for an announcement, so I guess we just have to wait and see if it happens!

Author’s take

After watching the 30 for 30, I thought a lot of people who clamoured for the XFL return had either forgotten how badly the XFL was received when it originally aired or did not see it, however this seems like a lot more thought has gone in - and Vince may have the tools to succeed this time around. It's very interesting that there's no link with WWE, so it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out, and if it adds fuel to the flames that Vince may be ready to sell the WWE.

Gary Cassidy is a freelance journalist from Glasgow, Scotland, specialising in professional wrestling with Sportskeeda.
Gary has ten years' writing experience and a 2:1 Honours degree, and is also a subtitler working on both live and prerecorded broadcast for television channels across the UK, USA and Australia.